Skip Navigation

This report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) satisfies the requirements of section 221(b) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. The purpose of the report is to aid the Congress in adopting authorizing legislation that must be in place before it considers the 13 regular appropriation bills.

Debbie Goldberg and Stephen Celio of CBO's Special Studies Division prepared the report under the supervision of Robin Seiler, Marvin Phaup, and Robert Hartman. The authors acknowledge the valuable assistance of CBO Budget Analysis Division staff and of Terri Linger for systems support. Helpful comments and suggestions were also received from numerous committee staff members. The report was edited by Chris Spoor and typed by Mary Braxton.

Questions concerning this report should be directed to Debbie Goldberg.
 

Robert D. Reischauer
Director
January 1994
 
 

OVERVIEW

The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-177) requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to report to the Congress on unauthorized appropriations and expiring authorizations. Section 221(b) of the act added this requirement to section 202(f) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, as amended:

(3) On or before January 15 of each year, the Director, after consultation with the appropriate committees of the House and the Senate, shall submit to the Congress a report listing (A) all programs and activities funded during the fiscal year ending September 30 of that calendar year for which authorizations for appropriations have not been enacted for that fiscal year, and (B) all programs and activities for which no authorizations for appropriations have been enacted for the fiscal year beginning October 1 of that calendar year.

The conference report on the Balanced Budget Act states that the purpose of the requirement is "to help Congress use the early months of the year to adopt authorizing legislation that must be in place before the thirteen regular appropriation bills can be considered."

The substance of this report consists of two appendixes. Appendix A specifies programs that have received fiscal year 1994 appropriations but that lack specific authorizations of appropriations for that year. Appendix B lists programs whose specific authorizations of appropriations will expire by the end of fiscal year 1994. The list reflects all public laws enacted through the first session of the 103rd Congress. The information on authorizations is maintained in CBO's Legislative Classification System. The information on amounts appropriated for fiscal year 1994 is from CBO's estimates of the current level of federal spending.
 

PROGRAMS FUNDED IN FISCAL YEAR 1994 WITHOUT SPECIFIC AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS

The programs and activities that have received fiscal year 1994 appropriations but that lack authorizations of appropriations for that year are summarized in Appendix A. These programs at one time had explicit authorizations of appropriations from the Congress but the authorizations expired and have not been renewed. Appendix A shows the last funding level authorized for each program.

If the applicable fiscal year 1994 appropriation bills or the legislative history provided explicit funding levels for these programs, those amounts are shown. When no explicit amounts were provided (as when a small program was funded at an unidentified level in a large appropriation account), the appendix simply notes that no amounts are available.

Two characteristics of the information in Appendix A should be noted. First, even if the fiscal year 1994 appropriation for a program or activity was not authorized, the agency normally may obligate and spend the funds. Second, the appendix may not include all programs and activities funded in fiscal year 1994 that lack an authorization. CBO does not track expiring authorizations that do not explicitly authorize appropriations, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs' authority to provide respite care. CBO also does not track unauthorized earmarks, or set-asides, in appropriation acts.

Approximately $27.2 billion of the $57.8 billion in fiscal year 1994 appropriations listed in Appendix A is for programs whose most recent authorizations of appropriations expired at the end of fiscal year 1993. The largest are the programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ($14.6 billion). Other programs in this category include activities of the State Department ($3.9 billion), the United States Information Agency ($1.1 billion), the National Science Foundation ($3.0 billion), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ($1.5 billion).¹

The other $30.6 billion in unauthorized fiscal year 1994 appropriations is for programs whose authorizations expired before the beginning of the first session of the 103rd Congress. In this category, unauthorized funds for the Department of Justice totaled $8.7 billion. The annual authorization for most of the department's programs has not been enacted since 1979. Over $8.1 billion is for international security and development and foreign assistance programs. The 99th Congress authorized funding for those programs through fiscal year 1987.

Nearly $6.9 billion of the unauthorized funds is for civilian programs of the Department of Energy. Annual authorizations for these programs are required by law, but funding for most of them was last authorized, through fiscal year 1984, by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 reauthorized a majority of the fossil energy and energy supply programs for fiscal years 1993 through 1997.

In addition, almost $2.0 billion of these funds is for state grants for programs of the Environmental Protection Agency authorized in the Water Quality Act of 1987, and nearly $1.5 billion is for activities of the United States Customs Service.

Tables 1 and 2 summarize the amounts appropriated in fiscal year 1994 for programs and activities lacking authorizations by House and Senate authorizing committees, respectively. Table 3 summarizes the funding levels for programs that once had explicit authorizations of appropriations, listing public laws by appropriation amounts.

1. The programs of the State Department and U.S. Information Agency were authorized in PL 102-138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993.

This document is available in its entirety in PDF.